"Today, how come I didn't see you drawing during class?"
Hearing Yumiko Miura's question, Mio blinked. "I guess I felt like constantly drawing during class was affecting my studies a bit, so now I just draw during my free time at home."
At that, Mio seemed to remember something and continued, "Yumiko, let's exchange contact info. I've got something to show you."
"Hm?"
Though Yumiko was a bit confused, she still exchanged contacts with Mio.
After adding Yumiko as a friend on the social app, Mio immediately sent over a chibi cartoon character waving hello.
At first, Yumiko didn't react much, but she soon realized the sticker Mio had sent looked like... a chibi version of herself.
Before she could say anything, Mio sent several more different stickers in quick succession, all chibi versions of her.
Okay, to be fair, she'd never make such exaggerated gestures. But considering how cute they were, she'd let it slide.
A nice smile curved across Yumiko's lips.
"These are Yumiko's exclusive sticker pack~ I'll gradually add new ones later." As she said this, Mio also sent Yui Yuigahama a set of her own chibi stickers.
She'd drawn these last night when she had nothing better to do, then turned them into sticker packs.
"They're so cute~" Yui's eyes lit up looking at her chibi self. Even she hadn't expected Mio to be able to do this.
"What about mine?" Sho Tobe pointed at himself, looking at Mio expectantly.
"Sorry, I can't draw guys, so I don't have ones for you guys yet." As Mio spoke, she also sent a sticker pack to Hina Ebina.
Ebina looked at the stickers, then quietly leaned close to Mio's ear and said excitedly, "Could you, could you draw that kind—you know, two boys together, doing the fencing thing..."
"No way. Not happening."
Honestly, with Mio's current drawing skills, she totally could. But she didn't want to.
Just then, Mio suddenly heard someone calling her name.
"Shirai-san, someone's looking for you."
Following where her classmate was pointing, Mio immediately spotted the blonde twin-tailed beauty standing at the door.
It was Eriri.
Although she didn't know why Eriri had suddenly come looking for her, Mio still greeted Yumiko before getting up and heading outside the classroom.
"Sawamura-san, what's up?"
"Um, I just wanted to ask if you have time during lunch break. I want to show you the storyboards I finished drawing last night."
"I've got time. But are you sure it's okay to do this at school?" Mio glanced around nervously, putting on an act.
"It's fine. I got the key to the art club's activity room from the club president. We can go there at noon. It'll be just the two of us." Eriri said confidently.
Actually, to maintain her image, she normally wouldn't bring doujin drafts to school, afraid of accidentally exposing herself like Mio had. If her carefully built persona collapsed, that'd be bad enough—but the social death would definitely force her to transfer to a school where nobody knew her.
But this time, she'd finally found someone she could discuss things with, so taking a slight risk was worth it.
"I don't know why, but when you emphasized 'just the two of us,' it feels like we're doing something sketchy."
"I told you not to say things that'll make people misunderstand!"
Seeing Eriri's little fang peek out as she got worked up, Mio suddenly thought of a certain phrase—something about fangs causing injury.
Oh wait, she's into utter nonsense. Never mind then.
After Eriri managed to calm herself down, she said, "Alright, it's settled then. I'll head there first at noon to wait for you."
"Okay."
After seeing Mio return, Yui asked curiously, "Mio, that was Sawamura-san from Class 1, right?"
"Yep."
Mio just transferred here recently, but she's already made friends with students from other classes, and they seem pretty close too. That kind of social ability is really impressive.
Yui couldn't help thinking back to when she'd first met Mio—the loneliness and melancholy Mio had shown. She was starting to feel a bit confused about which version was the real Mio.
Time quickly arrived at the lunch break.
Mio grabbed her bento and headed to the art club's activity room.
Looking at the empty hallway, just as Mio was wondering if Eriri hadn't arrived yet, the activity room door suddenly cracked open. Eriri cautiously poked her head out, confirmed no one was around, then pulled Mio straight into the room.
She'd acted so confident earlier about not being afraid of getting caught, but now she was being this careful. Mio didn't even know what to say.
Eriri didn't notice Mio's expression. Instead, she excitedly pulled out her draft from her bag and placed it in front of Mio.
After looking through it several times, Mio set down the draft. "It's a great story. I just feel like the female lead's corruption happened a bit too fast—her mental state change didn't quite keep up. That's just my personal feeling though. I don't know if I'm right or not."
After hearing Mio's thoughts, Eriri nodded thoughtfully. Actually, she'd also felt something was off, but last night her mind had been too excited to notice. Now looking at it again, it really was like that.
Sure enough, having someone to discuss with made problems much easier to solve.
"I get it. I'll think it over carefully when I get home tonight. For now, let's eat lunch."
Eriri quietly pulled out bread she'd bought from the convenience store, then saw Mio open her homemade bento.
Noticing Eriri's gaze and glancing at the bread in her hand, Mio thought for a moment before saying, "Sawamura-san, I can't finish all this by myself. Want to share?"
Eriri instinctively wanted to refuse, but then heard Mio's voice continue, "How about considering it payment for Sawamura-san pushing me down yesterday?"
"Wait... wait, that sounds really weird when you say it like that!"
······